Electro-Harmonix Tone Corset Analog Compressor

KEY FEATURES

Like many worship electric guitar players, my compressor is the one pedal that is always on. Noting that pretty much every major worship guitarist has a POG on their board, there is already a lot of love ‘in the house’ for EHX. Although I anticipated liking the Tone Corset, I did not expect to be completely blown away, so let’s talk about why I was…

For starters, the Tone Corset is an OTA (operational transconductance amplifier) compressor that sounds great and is super easy to dial in. Of the fifteen or so compressors I have here, none of them shares the Tone Corset’s exact feature set, which is key to the magic that this little box produces. In my experience, many compressors have one or two settings that are the real sweet spots. With a little help from a Milkman Sound 50W Sideman, I was floored by the massive range of tones I was able to dial up with the Tone Corset. While I love all the compressors I own, the flexibility of the feature set on the Tone Corset inspired me to play things I never would have otherwise – how cool is that?

Noting the EHX is based in NYC, the Blend control allows you to mimic the parallel compression that is frequently referred to as ‘New York Drum Compression’. Per the Tone Corset, this allows you to preserve the natural dynamics of the source audio while being able to blend in the compressed signal to taste. This also gives you the freedom to be more extreme in how you set Sustain and Attack controls, making for a huge difference in sound and feel.

The Volume control allows you to compensate for any perceived drop in volume when you compress your signal. In combination with the Blend control, it also enables you to pummel the front end of your amp into overdriven submission, with as little or as much compression as you desire. The Pad switch is perfect for those of us who have instruments with active electronics.

The Tone Corset delivered worship tone bliss when used with a Gretsch hollow body, an EHX Deluxe Memory Man 550-T, and a Milkman Sound 50W Sideman. The 550-T delivered the somewhat significant volume boost from the Tone Corset on to the 50W Sideman without any clipping. Also, by reducing the Attack and bumping up the Sustain I was able to keep the Gretsch chimey while still keeping any spikey transients at bay, even with the Bright switch engaged on the amp.

Given all the great tones and functionality, the Tone Corset easily holds its own with compressors twice the price. Two big thumbs up to everyone at EHX on this one!